3 New Babies & No Idea At All

[Foxyrockie]

Hey there everyone! I've been quietly stalking BackyardChickens for awhile now, but I've finally decided to join! I'm so excited to find some folks who love chickens as much as I do!! Anywho, I've added to my flock today, and I decided to be brave a buy chicks completely mysterious to me. I love discovering what I have! If you guys have any clue about what they are, please share. Also, my last mystery chick a few months ago turned out to be (what I think is anyway) an Australorp. She's in the pic with my Orpington/RIR mixes. I believe she's a hen, but I'd love more trained eyes than my own. Thanks everyone. And I'm so exited to finally be a member of this site! It's really awesome!!

 

[QueenMisha]

The little buff bird is most likely a Black-Tailed Buff Japanese bantam. I would guess it's a cockerel.

The tall, blueish-gray bird is some type of Oriental Gamefowl. The exact breed I can't say, as they all tend to look similar, and are frequently crossed. But I would call it a very lucky pick indeed! Oriental Gamefowl are my absolute FAVORITE birds, and they aren't very common at all. The sex could go either way, however.

The crested bird looks like a mix of some type, and is really too small and young to tell about sex yet.

What is the age of your Australorp? I can't tell if she is simply old enough to begin developing large wattles or if she is in fact a rooster. The comb has the fatness of a rooster's, but if she were older than 3-4 months it wouldn't be unreasonable for her to have a comb of that color and size.

 

[Foxyrockie]

Wow. I've never heard of any of those! The Australorp is a little over 3 months. :0) So maybe a hen?! The others I was guessing at online. I figured maybe Polish for the one with the poof and the other maybe a buff catalana? I don't know anything about those breeds though. What is an oriental gamefowl? Since they're your fav, maybe you can tell me something that Google can't? I couldn't even figure out a good guess for that one, so maybe you're right! Thanks for your response!

 

[QueenMisha]

At 3 months, it could go either way. The comb is big for a hen of that age, but not impossible. If it's rooster it will soon begin growing sharp, pointed saddle feathers - they look very different from a hen's rounded saddle feathers and are easily distinguished. It will also hold itself taller and have a raspy voice.

Catalana's are a standard breed. Your little buff chicken is almost certainly bantam. Black-Tailed Buff Japanese Bantam fits the description because of the tail, which as you can see is held very high - BTB is also one of the most common colors of Japanese, making it the most likely possibility.

The little crested bird could be part Polish, but probably isn't purebred, based the crest. What he has is a partial crest, and it doesn't look like it's going to grow out like a Polish's crest does. Polish have round, wide crests, which fall into their eyes.

Oriental gamefowl are amazing birds! They come in many different breeds - some common examples are Asil, Shamo, Malay, and Thai. Some of these breeds are quite rare - there are estimated to be only several hundred Malays (the tallest chicken breed, with roosters standing over 3 feet tall) in the US! Orientals originate in many Eastern countries and continents, including Japan, Vietnam, India, Madagascar, and many of the surrounding areas! They are some of the most ancient chicken breeds, some of them dating back thousands of years. They were originally bred for cockfighting - this means that they can be quite feisty when around other chickens (it is said roosters cannot be kept together for fear of killing each other, and hens will occasionally tussle as well!). They may sound more like foul than fowl, but I assure you they are some of the best breeds in the world. They are hardy to heat and cold, resistant to many diseases, and have admirable spirit! They are also some of the friendliest birds in the world. Friendlier than Silkies, friendlier than Brahmas, friendlier than anything! Because cockfighting requires many hours of training, the most tame and easily handling birds were selected for breeding. They make amazing pets - even birds who were rarely handled as chicks will come right up to you! I have a 50% oriental game chick right now, who is 10 weeks old... he has been handled for maybe 15 minutes in his entire life... still he will come right up to me, sit on my boots, or go to sleep in my arms. Orientals also have a very important place in history! In addition to being very primitive breeds, they were one of the most important breeds in the development of the modern industrial meat bird! Their tall, muscular bodies (some weighing over 12 pounds) were used to create the Standard Cornish, which was then used to create all modern "broiler" chickens - of which over 7 billion are raised each year in the U.S. alone! And although they are poor layers, the few eggs they do lay are often quite large, and very tasty!

 

[Foxyrockie]

That's a bunch of info! Thanks. Any idea about the old wives tale about sexing based on if they kick or not?

 

[QueenMisha]

I sex based on comb/wattle, stance, voice, and tail-flipping (a little-known method most accurate when done like this: held, relaxed, facing toward you, with your pinkie and ring fingers on either side of each leg and your thumbs on their hip joints, then flipped very quickly vertical so their head is straight down and their butt straight up, hens will lift and fan their tails, while roosters will keep them in a straight position with minimal movement).

 

[Foxyrockie]

I just got around to looking up some of those chickens. That Japanese Buff Bantam looks spot on! And Im pretty excited bc those chickens are beautiful! Even the roos. :0) What makes you think it could be a roo? I thought female bc some of the others around the same age already had combs coming in, and mine doesnt have much. I wasnt able to find an oriental gamefowl that looked like my little bird though. Also, I couldnt begin to try to sex them the way your described! Lol, I tried to imagine it but would probably have to see it done to understand.

 

[QueenMisha]

I just got around to looking up some of those chickens. That Japanese Buff Bantam looks spot on! And Im pretty excited bc those chickens are beautiful! Even the roos. :0) What makes you think it could be a roo? I thought female bc some of the others around the same age already had combs coming in, and mine doesnt have much. I wasnt able to find an oriental gamefowl that looked like my little bird though. Also, I couldnt begin to try to sex them the way your described! Lol, I tried to imagine it but would probably have to see it done to understand.

Looking at it again, it could go either way... the entire body is very upright, which though typical for the breed, looks a little bit more extreme than what would be seen a hen. However, the comb is quite small, so it's plausible it's a hen. Especially since the JBs usually display a large comb.

Oriental gamefowl are difficult to sex... they are bred to be mostly combless and wattless, since those are both easy to grab (a liability in a fight), so facial tissue on hens and roosters of most OG breeds are pretty similar. The feathers also come out very strange... while feather sexing based on a rooster's sharp saddle feathers (and a hen's lack of them), many OG hens will grow out saddle feathers that appear quite sharp and lustrous, only to shorten out and dim down several weeks after they come in fully. I have three Ga Noi juveniles at the moment... when their saddle feathers came in, I was absolutely CERTAIN I had 3 roos. Nope... 1 boy and two girls. Plus attitude sexing of OGs is a no-no - hens and roos alike will dance and fight with other juveniles, and hens can look VERY fierce at times. My OGs usually become sexable around 16 weeks of age, when the saddle feathers round out.

Tail-flipping is an acquired skill for sure, hard to describe in text... I was required to learn it as part of my job at a poultry specialty store, and it took me several days of practice to do it correctly.. I have been meaning to take a video and post it here and on some other forums I frequent. I will, one of these days, when I get a new phone to take pics and vid with.

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

They all look like pullets! The crested one looks like an Appenzeller Spitzhauben. The orange one looks like a Black Tailed Buff Japanese Bantam. The blue one looks like a game bird mix

 

[Foxyrockie]

I had never heard of an Appenzeller Spitzhauben before this! It does look similar, but I doubt it bc it looks like those are pretty rare. That brown one is almost definitely a Japanese Bantam, and I'm so excited bc once I read up on them, I think I'm going to enjoy having it. That little blueish one though, I have no clue. I cant find any pictures of anything similar to it. I got them all from the feed store I get their food from. They had chickens for the first time since Id been going there and I couldn't resist. They keep all the older chicks together in a huge pen, but they have all different ones in there and nobody knows anything about them. AT. ALL. The guy that helped me was very nice (he gave me a free chick) but he didn't know much. He called the one with the furry top a "Don King"! I'm resisting the urge to name him Don. :0)